The Wonderful Adventures of Nils eBook

And the foxes, who knew that it was well-nigh impossible
to take the life of a goose on an open plain, thought
at first that they wouldn’t chase after the
goosey-gander. But as they had nothing else to
do, they finally sneaked down on one of the long passes,
and tried to steal up to him. They went about
it so cautiously that the goosey-gander couldn’t
see a shadow of them.

They were not far off when the goosey-gander made
an attempt to raise himself into the air. He
spread his wings, but he did not succeed in lifting
himself. When the foxes seemed to grasp the fact
that he couldn’t fly, they hurried forward with
greater eagerness than before. They no longer
concealed themselves in the cleft, but came up on the
highland. They hurried as fast as they could,
behind tufts and hollows, and came nearer and nearer
the goosey-gander—­without his seeming to
notice that he was being hunted. At last the foxes
were so near that they could make the final leap.
Simultaneously, all three threw themselves with one
long jump at the goosey-gander.

But still at the last moment he must have noticed
something, for he ran out of the way, so the foxes
missed him. This, at any rate, didn’t mean
very much, for the goosey-gander only had a couple
of metres headway, and, in the bargain, he limped.
Anyway, the poor thing ran ahead as fast as he could.

The boy sat upon the goose-back—­backward—­and
shrieked and called to the foxes. “You
have eaten yourselves too fat on mutton, foxes.
You can’t catch up with a goose even.”
He teased them so that they became crazed with rage
and thought only of rushing forward.

The white one ran right straight to the big cleft.
When he was there, he made one stroke with his wings,
and got over. Just then the foxes were almost
upon him.

The goosey-gander hurried on with the same haste as
before, even after he had gotten across Hell’s
Hole. But he had hardly been running two metres
before the boy patted him on the neck, and said:
“Now you can stop, goosey-gander.”

At that instant they heard a number of wild howls
behind them, and a scraping of claws, and heavy falls.
But of the foxes they saw nothing more.

The next morning the lighthouse keeper on Great Karl’s
Island found a bit of bark poked under the entrance-door,
and on it had been cut, in slanting, angular letters:
“The foxes on the little island have fallen
down into Hell’s Hole. Take care of them!”

And this the lighthouse keeper did, too.

TWO CITIES

THE CITY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

Saturday, April ninth.

It was a calm and clear night. The wild geese
did not trouble themselves to seek shelter in any
of the grottoes, but stood and slept upon the mountain
top; and the boy had lain down in the short, dry grass
beside the geese.

It was bright moonlight that night; so bright that
it was difficult for the boy to go to sleep.
He lay there and thought about just how long he had
been away from home; and he figured out that it was
three weeks since he had started on the trip.
At the same time he remembered that this was Easter-eve.